Tata is Best Corporate Brand, Narayana Murthy Most Admired Business Leader: Brand-comm study

Final year students from top B-Schools have said that
Infosys honcho N R Narayana Murthy is their ‘Most
Admired Business Leader’. The fifth annual B-school
survey conducted by Brand-comm also finds that Tata is
the ‘Most Admired Corporate Brand’ with operations in
India.

Thirteen business management schools from across the
country including three IIMs were part of the survey,
and a total of 545 final year B-school students
responded to a self-filling questionnaire.

The Best Corporate Brand to this segment of future
corporate leaders was the Tata brand. Twenty per cent
of the respondents favoured Tata for this title, while
14 per cent picked Infosys. HLL and TCS came next,
with four per cent of respondents naming them
spontaneously. The title was for Best Corporate Brand
with operations in India, and eight of the top 10 here
were Indian companies.

All five editions of the survey among future managers
have consistently found Infosys Chairman and Chief
Mentor Narayana Murthy as the ‘Most Admired Business
Leader’. The study finds that B-school students admire
Narayana Murthy for being a socially responsible
individual, and look up to him as a leader who is
honest and passionate about his work.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group, occupies the
second position in this list. The Ambanis, including
the late Dhirubai Ambani, occupy the third position
while Wipro’s Azim Premji, UB’s Vijay Mallya and
Aditya Birla Group’s Kumaramangalam Birla are jointly
placed in the fourth position.

While Ratan Tata is admired for being a visionary and
for his commitment for the country’s development, Azim
Premji is admired for his values towards his
employees, for his integrity, discipline and vision
for Wipro. The flamboyant Vijay Mallya has risen in
the list this year, and is admired for a contrasting
set of qualities - his energy, dynamism, flair,
foresight and capacity to innovate.

Kishore Biyani has found his way to the top 10 too,
and so have Captain Gopinath of Air Deccan, KV Kamath
of ICICI, Subroto Bagchi of MindTree and Nandan
Nilekani of Infosys.

Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-comm, said, “We at
Brand-comm are extremely proud and happy for having
been able to conduct this survey successfully for 5
years now. This study reiterates the value of personal
branding. People like brands can make a difference to
companies.”

The survey also probed respondents on the most
attractive Indian companies to work for. While 19 per
cent of respondents said it was Infosys, six per cent
said it was Tata. Though both Infosys and Tata were
chosen as companies providing the best work
environment, work culture and excellent HR practices
and were chosen by a majority of the respondents, IIM
students were found to have a strong preference for
McKinsey and Reliance.

Pavan Padaki, Director - Creative Planning,
Brand-comm, said, “This year the study has affirmed
the power of personal branding. This is evident in the
fact that despite the death of the great Dhirubhai
Ambani and the subsequent family feud, the Ambanis
continue to be in the top 5. This is a wonderful
example of the enduring impact of personal branding.”

Consulting, Software/Hardware/EDP, Banking/ Financial
Services, FMCG, followed by Investment Banking
continued to be the top five industry sectors, as a
choice for immediate placement for future managers.

The study also reveals that the opinion of B-school
students is divided on whether they want to be
entrepreneurs or want to work for an organisation.
While this is different from last year’s findings,
according to Brand-comm, no significant difference in
opinion was found between the IIM and other B-School
students in this regard. In all, 50 per cent picked
‘Maybe an entrepreneur’ while 29 per cent said they
would ‘Rather be an entrepreneur’. The remaining 21
per cent, like most of us, preferred employment.